St Bede’s students created their own piece of History at Gorton Monastery for this year’s Manchester Irish Festival.
Students from the College’s award winning ‘Young, Gifted & Green’ troupe are the first ever Irish group to perform in the newly restored Monastery, which is now a prestigous arts and conference centre. The sell out show on Saturday 7 March raised close to fifteen thousand pounds for the Gorton Monastery Trust and South Manchester Youth, Lourdes Pilgrimage.
Tony Hennigan, the director of Young, Gifted & Green from St Bede’s College, said, “It was a fantastic evening. The Monastery is a unique building and holds a very special place in the hearts of Manchester’s Irish Community. We were delighted to be the first Irish troupe to stage a sell out show on the opening weekend of the Manchester Irish Festival at the newly restored arts venue.”
The atmosphere in the Monastery was very special and the show managed to raise a considerable amount of money for the Gorton Monastery Trust and the South Manchester Youth, Lourdes Pilgrimage.”
“Demand for tickets was at an unprecedented high and I think we could have filled the Monastery several times over. We would like to thank all of the one hundred performers in the show, our special guests, the audience, our sponsors and everyone who helped to make it such a successful event.”
The one hundred strong group of Irish musicians, singers and dancers have 
appeared on numerous TV shows including BBC’s Blue Peter and Songs of Praise. The Irish Prime Minister, Brian Cowen TD, sent his own personal letter of support to students for staging such a unique event and congratulated them on being the first group to receive the Royal Variety Club of Great Britain ‘Pride of Erin’ Award. During the last decade the troupe has performed sell out shows at the Bridgewater Hall, The Lowry, The Royal Festival Hall in London, Manchester Town Hall and the College itself.
The Pugin designed Gorton Monastery was saved from destruction by the Monastery Trust and has had £6.5 million spent on its refurbishment and conversion into one of the UK’s most prestigious conference and events centre. The building is listed in the world’s top one hundred historical sites and is described by English heritage as the Taj Mahal of Manchester.
www.gortonmonastery.co.uk